Don't @ Me with Justin SimienJoin me, Justin Simien, each week for unfiltered conversations with the stars, artists and creators shaping our culture. If you’ve seen my show and film, Dear White People, you know we’re going to get into how race, gender, and sexuality impacts our lives and shapes our work. Beyond the knee-jerk reactions and Twitter hot takes, my guests and I get real and raw. Don't like what you hear? Don't @ Me.

The OrganistTake a weird, thoughtful and pleasurable journey into literature, music, art, philosophy, the internet, language, and history with McSweeney's and KCRW. This unconventional arts-and-culture magazine features contributors and guests like Miranda July, George Saunders, Lena Dunham, Tig Notaro, and Sarah Silverman.

This week, Tom showcases John Coltrane's 1964 masterpiece, A Love Supreme, followed by a remarkable tribute and celebration of this classic by Branford Marsalis's Band, recorded live in Amsterdam in 2003, but only just now released for the first time.

FROM THIS EPISODE

If I had to name a few of the greatest instrumental jazz records of all time, several artists would come to mind: Louis Armstrong, Ahmad Jamal, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis would be at the top of my list.

John Coltrane and his album, A Love Supreme, took things to new heights. It distinguishes itself from the rest by being not only a musical masterpiece but a spiritual testament as well. Recorded in late 1964, I still remember when I first heard this record on KBCA 105.1 FM. I was on my way to grad night driving along the newly-opened 10 Freeway in my sister’s boyfriend’s 356 Porsche. It was a truly sublime moment from my early years, and I’ve been listening to this record ever since.

Coltrane brought a spiritual dimension to jazz music. In doing so, he inspired generations of musicians: Pharoah Sanders, Doug and Jean Carn, Leon Thomas, John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, the French band Magma and its leader, Christian Vander, Gil Scott-Heron, Azar Lawrence and the late Michael Brecker, to name a few. Most recently, the new 3-CD Kamasi Washington album, The Epic, bears witness to the timeless legacy that is A Love Supreme. For these musicians, it’s not just about Coltrane’s total mastery of the tenor saxophone, his mastery of exotic modes and scales; it is about psychic energy and exploration, a search for spiritual truth. It’s truly spiritual jazz or—maybe more appropriately—just spiritual music.

As a major added bonus, this new album comes with a DVD, on which Branford Marsalis interviews the late Alice Coltrane about A Love Supreme. In one memorable instance, Alice recounts that prior to the recording session, Coltrane locked himself upstairs, isolated from the family for a week, practicing—but mostly meditating. Aside from bringing his meals upstairs, husband and wife didn’t see one another other for the entire week. Finally, she says, he “walked the stairs like Moses [descending] from the mountain,” declaring that he was done and that he had the music.

Off-mic, I remember from my 1987 interview with Alice that there had been little to no rehearsal when Coltrane’s band assembled in Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, for the recording session on December 9, 1964. The musicians were so well-prepared that they finished recording that day.